The Future of Fordham University School of Law

Fordham Law School FLASH: The Fordham Law Archive of Scholarship and History 1-1-1955 The Future of Fordham University School of Law John F.X.. Finn Follow this and additional works at

Fordham Law School

FLASH: The Fordham Law Archive of Scholarship and History

1-1-1955

The Future of Fordham University School of Law

John F.X Finn

Follow this and additional works at: https://ir.lawnet.fordham.edu/finn_papers

Recommended Citation

Finn, John F.X., "The Future of Fordham University School of Law" (1955) Papers of the Dean 1

https://ir.lawnet.fordham.edu/finn_papers/1

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THE FUTURE OF FORDHAM UNIVERSITY

SCHOOL OF LAW

JOHN F X FINN*

A S THE atomic age merges into the ultrasonic, the philosopher is in-clined to pause for a fleeting moment and to endeavor to encompass the totality of things, even as the poet

" dipt into the future , as far as human eye could sec,

Saw the Vision of the world and all the wonder that would be."

In that mood, we recall a recent observation that

"It is a vicious business to look backward unless the feet are set steadfastly on a

forward road An open and flexible mind, which recogni zes the need of t rans-formation and f ait hfully se t s i tself to apprehend new conditions is a prerequisite

of man ' s usefulness."

In moulding the future of Fordham University's School of Law, its faculty is determined to be useful, open minded, flexible and forward-moving, whether or not we occasionally glance backward

Looking both backward and forward, we adhere to Life's absolutes

The floating clock of our philosophy of Law rises ane! falls with thc tides

of timc ane! circumstance, yet it also remains ever fast to its moorings

In our dreams we behold many oases, castles in Spain, and perhaps

mirages, but we behold them in vivid delineation

We think in terms of a tangible new Fordham Law Center, a new law library with at least double and perhaps quadruple the present number

of books, new Moot Court Rooms, both trial and appellate, for our re-vitalized Practice Courses, a vigorous quarterly Law Review, a thriving and effective Student Bar Association, adequate dining facilities for students,

f acul ty, alumni, thei r guests ane! thei r friends, a revamped curricu lum,

orientation courses, courses in Legal Method, Brief-Writing, Legal

Draft- ~ ing, Public Speaking from the standpoint of addressing juries and courts

in Motion, Trial and Appellate Practice, "getting the facts," closed-circuit television from courtrooms, from administrative tribunals, from

title closings ane! the like, seminars, symposia, guided research, a Law

School newspaper, a Law School magazine, significant books and learned articles published by an augmented faculty, an Insurance Institute,

lec-tures for practising lawyers, a Graduate Law School, and so on

Perhaps God in His wisdom will add all of these things unto us; perhaps not

On the other hand, the ultimate test of a law school is its faculty, its

student body and its end-product If we keep our standards high, raise

* Dean and Professor of Law Fordham Law SchooL

1955J FIFTY YEARS OF FORDHAM LAW SCHOOL xv them, indeed, and if we continue the selfless devotion of the teachers who

currently move in the tradition of Fuller, Chapin, Keener, Gifford, Shealy, Loughran Carmody, Kennedy, Dee, O'Connell, Wilkinson and Kane, we shall all come trooping home together,-with the guidon of Fordham borne aloft more proudly than ever

Over the years our teachers have seen Fordham Law students vibrate

to teachers and the teachers vibrate to students just as Toscanini vibrates

to music

And there lies the richest future of Fordham Law School: the upturned

countenance, the reflective eye, the wholehearted quest for the far horizons

of the mind and the high horizons of the soul,-the vibrant response to the flame of living ideas wrung from the crucibles of the legal laboratory, and

"the ardent face, when boyhood gives, as boyhood can,

Its love and faith to a fine , true m a n "

To that inspiration we respond, with the earnest resolution that we shall never fail for lack of trying, for lack of zeal, for lack of vision, or for lack

of humility

Is it too much to hope and pray that before we pass from the scene,

the record of Fordham Law School's first fifty years will prove to be but the prologue of the glorious future of one of the greatest University

Schools in the history of creative thought?